


Not Alone

by 120kph



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, M/M, exploration of character, follows Abe's thoughts and feelings during Bijou and after the game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 21:11:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16145594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/120kph/pseuds/120kph
Summary: Abe wasn't the type to unnerve easily-- or so this was the facade that had attached itself to him.





	Not Alone

**Author's Note:**

> This was something sort of a prelude to another fic that I had been working on, and somehow it diverged into this and become a lot! so i decided this would be better on its own. And this is my first fic in a long time... so I hope you like it!!

Abe wasn't the type to unnerve easily-- or so this was the facade that had attached itself to him. A crafty ego that fooled almost everyone, even himself. Even years back, when he was a catcher in middle school, he molded himself to be reliable and endurable. However, Abe never was. Abe had always been insecure.

Partly because he was so independent, Abe shouldered the burden of holding not only his battery but also his team on his shoulder. He thought it was the only way. He had trusted and believed before, only to be pushed around and let down; and he could never let that happen again. He wasn't that weak.Even when the fragile, quivering, Nishiura pitcher came into his life he grit his teeth and decided on his own that their fate should be shouldered on him. 

However, Abe was still a kid and the troubles and responsibilities only grew more and more on him. He isolated himself further. During the team's first year at Koshien as Abe's pitcher began to suffer Abe took the blunt. His insides felt raw and his heart felt like it had been seared. Each tremble and shake from Mihashi, each whimper, each time a pitch went wrong or a score was made, his cuts an deeper.  
But he bit his lip and let it go, tears burned his eyes as he forced them back to reassure his pitcher. 

Mihashi was who mattered, not Abe. If Mihashi lost all the confidence that they had worked so hard to build, this new Mihashi would be doomed to waste away. 

Instead it was Abe who broke.

And Mihashi was the only one who could see. Perhaps it was some sort of vague understanding of the burden that froze his veins. Or maybe Mihashi could tell with each score, with each run, with every glance the pair shared Abe's foundation that he created came crumbling down. Possibly, it was neither of these. Maybe it was all in Abe's head.

But what he did know was Mihashi saved him. The sprain in Abe's ankle went dormant as he felt the muscles in his heart throb as he reunited with Mihashi in the dugout. Abe desperately clung to Mihashi's wrist, fearing that he had broken him and what they had. However, Mihashi's uncharacteristically unwavering eyes bore into him as Abe hung his head in shame. Abe's chilled fingers dug into Mihashi's wrist who, although stood frozen and unmoving, burned under their contact. 

It burned, it really burned. But, somehow, the strength rushed inside of him; Mihashi had reached him.

And the night of that loss; Mihashi, who quaked and trembled constantly, took the weight that drug Abe down with just one warm smile. A smile which was enough to melt his icy facade just enough.

And as he saw Mihashi off that night, and watched him twinkle and disappear in the horizon like the stars, he had realized how insecure and weak he actually was. But his heart never contracted. The feeling of Mihashi's fingers ghosted along his palm although they hadn't touched in hours. This ghostly feeling took the burden off his heart and held his hand tight. 

Abe wasn't alone, he had Mihashi.


End file.
